Wrapped

Someone has had her brothers wrapped around her finger since the day they first laid eyes on her. I was doing some garage clean up and set her in the wagon to keep her off the dirty floor.

Then out came Grant and with one bat of the eyelashes and a little grunt, off she went, down the hillside in a wagon ride.
He pulled that baby all over the back yard and she loved every minute of it.
He finally tuckered out and left her sitting for a minute. "Hey.....hey, Bubba? Are you really just going to leave me here? Look at my longing face...."
When out walks Cade. Next thing you know, she's down the hill again. Another wagon ride with fresh legs.
Yep. They're wrapped. They'll do anything to get one of these:
And who am I kidding? So will Bobby.....and me.....and pretty much every extended member of this family. There's nothing like a baby smile to brighten your day!

Mule Day

It's been a couple years since the Morgan Crew has been in attendance as a familiy at the Mule Day Festivities. Baseball hasn't cooperated in the past and we've been forced to forgo our yearly dose of redneck. This year, with the cancelation of the traditional opening ceremonies, we had our morning free so we headed to the parade. Bobby went early, EARLY with the boys and they ate pancakes and then helped work the official Mule Day t-shirt booth.

I'm not sure if having the boys there actually qualified as "help". Especially this one. I'm pretty convinced (after seeing some little Mule Day pins fall from under his cap) that someone may have been pilfering more than he was selling. We ended up with the hat that's in his hand and I'm quite certain that neither Bobby nor myself paid a red cent for it. He claims it was all a perk for working the table.....I think he may have just whoodooied his Papa.
Now this is a bona fide helper. Cade is task oriented, money oriented and likes to do math so this selling stuff at a table was right down his alley. He was in charge of mugs and caps.
And this is pretty much what Rhett did.....played Angry Birds on Bobby's phone.
Lanie and I came later at a more reasonable hour. I really see no need in getting up early, early on my Saturday to eat pancakes. I don't even eat pancakes late on Saturdays. I matched her up with everyone else and let her sport her Mule Day tee.
Even in her Mule Day garb she's the cutest thing I've ever seen :)
I brought out my collector's shirt. It's a vintage piece dating all the way back to 2008 and is one of only who-knows-how-many fitted women's tees. This is the second time I've worn it. The last time was Mule Day '08. I don't want to risk getting it stained or worse yet, stolen. Travesty.
Well, now we can say, once again, "Been there. Done that. And got the t-shirt" and really mean it! I'm glad to have been a part of C-town history. It's always full of great real-life teaching moments like, "Don't you ever kiss your girlfriend like that in public or private for that matter", and "If you date a girl that wears shorts like that.....wait, back up. You will NOT date a girl that wears shorts like that" or "Note to self: It's never a good idea to slash your tiny t-shirt and wear it.....although it does make all of your back tattoos more visible. Hmmm." And really, where else are your kids going to get the privilege of seeing a boat with antlers pulling an outhouse with a deer head?

No where, baby. No where. Yee Haw!

Memorable Misuses

Let's talk about Rhett. Hmmmmm....Rhett (insert head shaking). He's got to be the goofiest kid I've ever had. He makes me pull my hair out some days, has me asking myself, "Am I really having an argument with a five year old right now?" on more than one occasion each day, and EVERY day has me laughing.

His hair, as cute as it is, has become the thorn in my side. It's not actually the hair that's the thorn it's the attitude of the head that it's on. Just this past Sunday I told him we needed to get it brushed for church and he went on a mini rampage. "Hair! Who cares about HAIR??! YOU might but I don't. Why is it always about my hair. Can't my hair just have a BREAK???" I stood there dumbfounded. Then I laughed and answered, "No. It can't have a break on Sunday. And remember all the days this week you've worn a hat (which would be the other 6 days of the week)? Those were breaks".
I had done an installment on this blog before of some of the crazy words he comes up with. Click here to read the last Little Buddy Excerpt. He still hasn't exactly mastered the English language. I mean, really though, who has?
A few of my favorites over the past month or so have been "Ignoying" as in "MOMMY!! I've asked you a hundred times! Are you ignoying me? Uggghhh." I believe that's a improper mixture of "ignoring" and "annoying". And, yes, I'm ignoring because the question is annoying.
"End Structable"- "Listen, people. I've got two words for you: end structable."(insert pompous head bob). In reference to what I'm not sure but I believe that the correct word would have been "indestructible". He may have been referring to his own head because as you can see in these pictures he's about to fall right on it.
And the last one for today, "deathnately". As in, "I'm deathnately not going to land on Elaina when I jump off the couch right over her head! (insert any number of "duh mom" faces) I won't go into the details online but let's just say I deathnately made it clear that he deathnately WOULD NOT do that ever again.
He's such a crazy kid. And, he absolutely flipped completely over the swing on this run, clipped his head and landed flat on his back knocking the wind out of himself. It startled me and I quickly put my camera down to check on the lad. Before I could even get there he was up on his feet and with a slow head nod he said, "Now THAT was totally.awesome!" It was then I had wished I had continued with the pictures. Nothin' says "Mom of the Year" like a play by play pictage of your kid getting the wind knocked out of him. I'm sure it'll happen again if history has anything to say about it.

Outside

Elaina has a newfound love for being outside. She wants to be wherever her brothers are and if I don't head out with her she throws a back arching baby temper tantrum. There just aren't many places to put her down since she's not walking or crawling yet. Luckily for me, I've come up with another use for our winter time sleds:

A perfect little thingy for Lanie to sit in that solves her leaf eating tendencies!
Throw in a few small wiffle balls for entertainment and you've got a self-contained play area!
We've been spending quite a bit of time outside practicing our baseball skills. This guy finally has some self-motivation and has been asking to practice almost every day.
Rhett is pretty sure he's going to be the team MVP because self-confidence has never been a problem for this cat. He'll put in about seven solid minutes of practice then decides he's pretty much got it. I tried to break it to him easily that you can't be an MVP when you stink. Practice. More.
Grant puts in small increments of time as well. He needs lots of juice breaks.
Cade was practicing his hitting and I was just walking around with my camera in the field practicing some skillz of my own. Rhett was being Mr. Take My Picture Doing This and a pic of him holding Lanie was top on his list. Dear me. Rhett still hasn't mastered a safe way to be a baby holder.
He was bound and determined to get some pics with his sister. She was about over it though.
I looked over and saw this pile of kids and thought it was so cute. No wonder this gal is content most of the time. She's always got brothers to entertain her. I'm pretty sure she has her hand in a crawdad hole. Brothers are not always the best monitors.
In an unfortunate turn of events, this tender moment turned violent. I was by no means surprised.

Tenderness quickly turns to tackling at the Morgan's. It's just a fact of life.

Tenderness and testosterone. Antonyms. Elaina will probably be the first one year old that can apply a successful chokehold if her brothers' example sinks in. I'll make sure she's wearing a bow on the wrestling team. That you can be sure of.

Wilderness Weekend

This weekend we trekked up to East Tennessee for the Morgan Fam mini-vacay. We hit the Wilderness Lodge on Friday afternoon and headed straight for the indoor water park. The boys were so pumped about this weekend they could hardly stand it! Once we got there I rarely even saw these four. They were hitting the slides together and didn't slow down.

These two buddied up since they were just shy of the height requirement to ride the slides without an adult. Rhett's enthusiasm was uncontainable. If he screamed "OH YEAH, BABYYYY!!!" once, he screamed it a thousand times.
Someone had less than stellar enthusiasm about the water park:
She felt much more comfortable with someone holding her. In her defense, there were some sketchy people there. I was actually a little afraid myself at times:) After a couple hours she decided to warm up to the water a bit. I think she realized it was quite like her bathtime at home, only on a MUCH larger, louder, more public scale.....and she wasn't naked.
Then she saw her brother.....

and decided she really DID like it!
Yea!! Fear: conquered!
I happened to see Cade come off the yellow slide once and was able to snap a quick pic. He should have been in boy heaven this weekend being that there was a cheerleading competition going on with more 7-12 year old girls than I could count. Thankfully, however, he's still pretty clueless about the female species and probably had no idea. I personally think it should remain that way until college. Don't get me wrong.....I definitely want him to like girls....just not too much :) And, despite what you may think after seeing this picture, the child really does eat.
I made the observation that at least 80% of the water park attendees were sporting one or more tattoos. Some had tats from the neck to the ankles with no pink skin between. I'm glad that I had inked Rhett a few days before leaving so he didn't feel left out.
Rhett loved going in the wave pool. Me? I loathed it. Here he is trying to convince me that I really WOULD love it if I'd just get out there. I personally didn't like the idea of trying to keep myself from being forced under water by either a) a huge wave of water or b) some bafoon on a float with no regards to a woman trying to maintain her child's safety.
After flopping around in the waves Rhett headed back to make sure Elaina remembered that he really loves her a whole bunch. It had been an entire 7 minutes since he had kissed her.
I hope she relishes this time in her bikini. It will be the only time in her life that a tiny pot belly, rolly polly thighs, and a bikini can come together in total cuteness!
Bobby took her out in the waves for a while and just to make myself feel better I needed to yell out, "make sure you don't drop her!". It's the mom in me. So, Mr. Smart Aleck did this:
Of course, even after that she loved him. Even cupped his chest in love. That cracked me up for some reason.
Brothers in the pool:
And, some sweet pics of my baby girl's smile:

I know Bobby's mom enjoyed getting some QT with LanieBugs.
We finished off the weekend with a meal at Old Mill or what I like to call Cracker Barrel on steroids. Every portion was at least doubled and automatically came with fritters. I always avoid anything with the word "fritter". You should too unless you like the idea of a very rapid and painful colon cleanse.
We had a great time spending the weekend with cousins. We'll be looking forward to the next Wilderness Weekend!